‘Bates Motel’ Gets Season 2 Renewal – What Will Happen Next?

A&E’s requel (reboot/prequel) series Bates Moteljust aired its fourth episode (read our review), but the misadventures of troubled young Norman Bates (Freddie Highmore) and his dragon-lady mother Norma (Vera Farmiga) will continue into next year, as Bates Motel has received a second season order from the cable network.

The news is not all that surprising, considering that the Bates Motel series premiere was the highest-rated program in A&E’s history, but as with all shows – particularly ones that air in the more Avant-garde realm of cable – there are the begging questions of should the story continue, and where it will go from here.

TV Linereports that Bates Motel season 2 will consist of ten episodes, just like season 1 – and what a first season it has been so far. As recently discussed on our Screen Rant Underground Podcast, the show (which looks back at the formative years of Hitchcock’s Psycho killer Norman Bates within a modern-day context) is not quite as thrilling or frightening as Fox’s The Following, or quite as interesting in its character study as Showtime’s Dexteror NBC’s Hannibal, but it is nonetheless solid.

Norman and Norma Bates (Freddie Highmore and Vera Farmiga)

Bates Motel is consistently creepy, mostly due to the way it juxtaposes the events of the series to what we know will be Norman’s ultimate fate as a deranged split-personality serial killer. Highmore and Farmiga are also good at charging their scenes with ambiguity and subtlety, making this slow downward spiral perennially discomforting in its teetering between the relatable and the twisted.

The show also had a pretty intense pilot that laid down a lot of threads slowly being unraveled over the course of season 1. However, it is also clear by now that the writers have a definite larger arc tying those threads together – including a murder cover-up for our central characters; a town that’s slowly becoming something out of Shirley Jackson’s The Lottery; not to mention, several family drama and/or romantic triangles waiting to be resolved. As AMC’s The Killing found out the hard way – with nearly fatal consequences – audiences don’t appreciate when stories get stretched out for the sake of making the network a season 2 dollar. So how best to continue Bates Motel?

Thankfully, the serieshas plenty going for it in terms of narrative space. There is of room for Norma and Norman (and even half-brother Dylan, played by Max Thieriot) to overcome their current legal and psychological predicaments and finally settle into town, their relationships with each other, their own skins – and of course their iconic motel, which has yet to actually open.

Norman and his imaginary mother.

The potential storylines involving an increasingly psychotic Norman, a volatile Norma, and a rotating series of motel guests, could definitely sustain a second season pretty well. It also leaves room for season 1 to end on a satisfyingly shocking note (Norman killing someone), offer a few shocking revelations (Norman killed his dad, for example) – with a tease of future mayhem in Season 2 (Bradley or Jenna growing closer with crazy Norman – the motel opening with two psychos as its operators, etc.).

The only issue is whether the creators planned for such progression initially, or took the ‘act like it’s your only season’ approach with the storyline, which could make a season 2 transition quite clunky (see again: The Killing). But so far, watching the evolution of Norman Bates has been a solid (if not great) experience for many of viewers; hopefully, the rest of season 1 and season 2 build on that dark momentum.

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jobo 1 year ago

Norma…. Its a totally hot Mother. Her beauty is very distracting. Xoxo. Love the show

I miss you aunt Norma and cuz Dillon and bestof all my hero cousin Norman…Rocking back and forth impatiently for season two to start…thankyou Bates Motel for making my personalities feel normal if only for a moment.

I absolutely LOVE ‘Bates Motel’ and I am so anxious waiting for the upcoming season. It is so awesome, the suspense, the drama, the way there was always something new happening and/or finding out more about previous events (such as how Norman’s father actually died). I always looked forward to every Monday night that I got to watch a new episode!

I’m a huge fan of this show! Comes in a close 2nd to the walking dead, and american horror story but the twist and storylines do grab me and keep me wanting and guessing for the next episode. A awesome show not to sure how many seasons there gonna get out of the storyline but it’ll be a very interesting season non the less.

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Norma is very much the reason that mr. Norman bates is the way he is. The show is fabulous in placing the blame where it was on norman’s “Mother” . Personally it is disturbing to see such a clingy needy person destroy an otherwise healthy adolescent. Though most of “mother” problems have been because of others, Norma does a poor job of moving on to a safer emotional place and as a result her shere of influence gets affected ….

This show is so better than that horrible THE FOLLOWING, everything is not better with BACON in that show. Now, Bates Motel is AMAZING!! I can not wait to see season 2; the relationship between Norman and his mother is so twisted. I do however HATE Normas character, they could have found someone much more convincing to play this role. She is just AWFUL!! The got it PERFECT with Norman’s role, this kid is creepy as can be and a damn fine actor. 10 STARS!!!

Just checking in to see if anyone knows when Season 2 is supposed to start. I hope I am not missing it. Yeah.. I am a big fan too. Enjoyed the heck out of Season 1. They sure left us curious and eager for more. You think they would have started around the same time Kevin Bacon’s “The Following” started their second season. I used to watch BM after it.. Thanks for any updates.